نشریه پژوهش های قرآنی
سال هجدهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 72، زمستان 1391)

The word al-abtar (without posterity) is one of the meaning-producing words that enjoy exclusive linguistic and paralinguistic features in Sūrat al-Kawthat. This word is regarded as one of the important indices of the “expressive inimitability” in Sūrat al-Kawthat. This research is intended to use etymology to first present an accurate meaning of this word and by examining the “conceptual transformation” of the word or by the so-called historical semantics, evaluate its course of conceptual transformation in three chronological periods of pre-Revelation, the Revelation, and post-Revelation of the Holy Qur’ān. The cognition process of the semantic field of this word takes place through unveiling the linguistic relations of the synonym, antonym, and related words on the basis of Ullmann’s semantics in order to achieve the logical relation between the Prophet’s (S.A.W.) enmity or friendliness with man’s eternality and degradation in the Holy Qur’ān. The semantics of the word al-abtar and the unveiling of its semantic relation with the Holy Qur’ān indicate that “love” is the secret of man’s eternality. The secret of real “eternality” of man from the viewpoint of the Qur’ān is “love”, which is grounded in “faith in God”; and the enmity toward the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) is definitely doomed to annihilation and extinction.

Concerning the Revelation occasion of verses 16 to 19 of Sūrat al-Qiyāma, in which God has forbidden the Prophet of repeating the verses, some narrations have been related in both Shī‘a and Sunnī interpretations quoted from the Sunnī’s ḥadīth collections. Dealing with the narrations concerning ta‘jīl, some important questions arise: First, are these narrations reliable in terms of sanad and content? Given the sanad and content of the narrations being sound, can they be the Revelation occasion of the above verses?To answer these questions in the present writing, the sanad of the narrations on ta‘jīl as well as their content are evaluated as per their compatibility with the nature of Revelation and the personality and station of the Prophet. In conclusion, the possibility of the narrations on ta‘jīl to be the Revelation occasion for the verses 16 to 19 of Sūrat al-Qiyāma are discussed.

Due to its enjoyment of an oral constitution, the Holy Qur’ān sometimes seems structurally and conceptually peculiar. Change of mutikallim portrays some part of these peculiarities. Nevertheless, it seems that some translators of the Qur’ān are not sufficiently familiar with this issue, and naturally, they have not adopted an effective strategy; in such a way that the translations have an oral tone and lack the structural and sometimes conceptual cohesion, causing the reader to undergo misunderstanding. This article has tried as a first step to present a comprehensive commentary on the change of mutikallim in the Qur’ān and then to analyze some verses consisting this issue, and finally, to show the outcome of the study.

Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd, the Egyptian Qur’ān researcher, has done many studies on hermeneutics and has made benefit from the views of famous hermeneutists regarding understanding and interpreting the Revealed verses throughout his works. One of the discourses of hermeneutics that are brought up in Abū Zayd’s works rather implicitly is the viewpoint of the multiplicity of meaning. By distinguishing the role of interpreters and associating the meaning to the interpreter, Abū Zayd has accepted the presuppositions and their roles in process of understanding the two major bases of the multiplicity of meaning and has practically joined the proponents of the multiplicity of meaning without having made any assertions about the multiplicity of meaning.

The present research articulates the method of the semantics of the Qur’ānic concepts and words on the basis of the cultural and ethnic (root) semantics school. This method deals with how to explicate and interpret the Qur’ānic words and concepts in a semantic way in four steps, which include: 1. vocabulary semantics, 2. semantic fields (synonyms, antonyms, related words in terms of action and reaction, and correlatives), 3. textual studies, and 4. paratextual studies. This method can be applied to the semantics of all the Qur’ānic words and concepts and can be called a new method in the interpretation and explication of the Qur’ānic concepts and words.

In this research, the impact of various interpretations of the soul, psyche, and mind on the ethical approach and orientation is briefly examined from the viewpoint of three schools and three persons: Fruid’s psychoanalysis, Watson’s Behaviorism, Maslow’s humanism of the self-actualized human being. Id, ego, and super-ego in Fruid’s viewpoint, the role of ego in mediation between id and super-ego and the ethical viewpoint, the role of stimulus and response in the formation of the personality and ethical behavior in behaviorism, which leaves no room for ethical selection and action outside environmental stimuli, Alport’s theory, which has examined the eight dimensions of ego, Maslow’s theory of self-actualization, and the synergy of facts and values are the topics examined in this research. However, the Qur’ān is a Book that is revealed by the Creator of man; the One who knows human potentials, how to develop them, as well as his weaknesses. Therefore, He is the most proficient of all psychologists, whose knowledge is not dependent upon experience and probabilities. He has explained the characteristics of human soul (nafs) and has undertaken his guidance and training. For this crucial task, He has sent down Messengers, who are endowed with books and training programs by God: instructing the wisdom, development, and perfection grounded in Divine values.

“The Apologetic Miracle of the Qur’ān” is a complicated concept and a multi-faceted theory in the history of Islamic thought. In order to have a more and more accurate understanding of such a concept or theory, one of the most essential tasks would undoubtedly be the examination of the means and backgrounds of the formulation of that concept and awareness of the intellectual developments leading to that theory. In this respect, sometimes the appearance and publication of some neglected manuscripts in the recess of the libraries would make significant contrinution to the process of research concerning these developments. In the present article, the writer, with the use of some of the newly-found writings of the Mu‘tazilah of Basra, has tried to shed light on the intellectual endeavors of the 3rd-4th/8th-9th centuries. On the basis of these sources, on one hand, he has paid attention to the differences of various Islamic sects concerning the impression of the Prophethood and, on the other hand, he has addressed the responses of the Muslim scholars to the deniers of the Prophethood of the Prophet of Islam and has thereby tried to show the process of transforming these arguments and disputes into an accurate and organized theory, i.e., “The Apologetic Miracle of the Qur’ān”. Among the noteworthy points of the article is its emphasize on the fact that the theory of the miracle (or the inimitability) of the Qur’ān has not been formulated by the Ashā‘iarh (including Bāqilānī); rather, the collective attempts of a group of the Mu‘tazilah theologians of Basra (including Abū ‘Alī Jubā’ī and his circle) in the form of some discussions such as “establishing the reasons for Prophethood”, have been a starting point for theorization of the later theologians in this respect.